212 BETTER VILLAGES

knock-about humour of one or two gifted amateur
comedians. It is the same with acting and producing.
If these could be regularly taught, a great improvement
would soon be seen, as our schools and villages are full of
latent talent which only wants training and developing to
be very good indeed. An occasional teaching class, for
the writing and production of rural drama, to which
promising teachers could be sent, would be very useful.
If a good teacher could be found he might be sent round to
assist schools and clubs which want to stage drama, first
by helping them to choose a suitable play, then to allot
and teach the parts, and finally to supervise the staging
and rehearsals. The weak point of all rural dramas is
preparation. Everything, including rehearsals, is left to
the last in the firm conviction that everything will go right
on the day. Improvisation and gagging are relied on to
see every play through, but it would go far better and be
far more useful if it was prepared and rehearsed to the
last detail and then put over with a snap on the big
night.

Another defect is length. All dramas are far too long
and too diffuse and try to teach far too many lessons.
Short plays—two on one night if you like with a different
team of actors—and one lesson at a time are far the best
from the teaching, and from every other, point of view.
No play should ever exceed an hour and a half. If it is
allowed to go rambling on hour after hour every one forgets
what the point of the play was, even if it ever had one !
Clear, simple, short plays, with few and simple properties,
carefully rehearsed and prepared are what we want for
publicity purposes. Good dramas could probably be made
largely self-supporting by playing to paying audiences in
the towns in addition to the free rural shows.